Rudy Giuliani’s law partner was named as top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, taking charge of an office that investigates Wall Street, international bribery and political corruption.
Geoffrey Berman was among 17 lawyers selected as interim U.S. Attorneys by the Trump administration, putting him in position to lead an office that has overseen some of the most significant investigations in the nation’s history. On Wednesday, the office won a conviction of a Turkish banker who helped Iran evade U.S. financial sanctions in a case that roiled relations between the American government and Turkey.
A Long Island software executive, Richard Donoghue, was picked as interim U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, an office which has recently pursued a sprawling investigation into corruption in international soccer and brought a successful fraud prosecution of former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli. He will also take over a probe of a real estate business owned by the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The administration selected Craig Carpenito to serve as interim U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, a plum post that Governor Chris Christie held for seven years before resigning to prepare for his gubernatorial bid in 2009.
Violent Crime
It remains to be seen how the appointees will seek to shape their offices. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has repeatedly said his priorities for federal prosecutors include crackdowns on immigration and violent crimes. He has said less about Wall Street and financial crimes, long a focus of the districts in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“As a former U.S. Attorney myself, I have seen firsthand the impact that these prosecutors have," Sessions said in a statement.
Those appointed on Wednesday may serve as long as 120 days without being confirmed by the Senate. After that, a U.S. judge in the district must make a temporary appointment until the administration and lawmakers agree on a permanent selection. Some of them succeed acting U.S. Attorneys whose 300-day terms expire on Thursday; the acting U.S. Attorneys were appointed after President Donald Trump fired Obama administration holdovers last year.
In Manhattan, Berman succeeds acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, who took over from Preet Bharara. When he was fired, Bharara had been investigating Deutsche Bank AG, the largest known lender to Trump’s businesses, and 21st Century Fox Inc. over whether it should have disclosed to investors that it made secret settlement payments to female on-air hosts who alleged sexual harassment.
A native of Trenton, New Jersey, where his father was a real estate developer, Berman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and its Wharton School. He got his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1984, and then went on to clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.